The evaluation of soil quality requires definitive, measurable criteria. Our objective was to develop a field assay for identifying the specific soil attributes that govern the quality of soil for biomass production. The technique involved the removal of surface soil and subsequent deposition of soils with diverse attributes. As an initial evaluation of this approach, 36 diverse soils were deposited in a replicated design at each of two sites (dryland and irrigated), and the soils were seeded to cereals for three subsequent years. Crop growth was highly responsive to variation in soil properties. Dry matter yields on dryland in the year after establishment, for example, ranged from 5.4 to 9.4 Mg ha−1 (excluding two subsurface soils). These findings demonstrate that variation in soil quality has a quantifiable influence on productivity, and suggest a useful supplementary role for the proposed approach in identifying soil quality criteria.
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Olson et al. (1996) studied this question.